The Most Beautiful Suicide

On the piece of paper Evelyn left before the tragic leap, she wrote:

“I don’t want anyone in or out of my family to see any part of me. Could you destroy my body by cremation? I beg of you and my family – don’t have any service for me or remembrance for me. My fiancé asked me to marry him in June. I don’t think I would make a good wife for anybody. He is much better off without me. Tell my father, I have too many of my mother’s tendencies“

She was only 23 years old.

Can a suicide keep beauty and transform into a work of art?

I think yes. The praise of the death of a beautiful girl is terrible and seductive. From Andy Warhol to David Bowie – in his song “Jump They Say” – the traumatic existence of a life broken in its blossom, makes the protagonist an eternal heroine.

“Edgar Allan Poe, within its essay Philosophy of composition,wrote that

«the death of a beautiful
woman is undoubtedly the most poetic
topic of the world »

and about this
the image realized by chance
by the former assistant photographer

Robert Wiles on the first of May
1947 is rich of emotion.

He succeeded in capturing the twenty-three years-old
Evelyn McHale lying with
elegant but unnatural composure
on the top of a limousine after a
long flight from the eighty-sixth floor
of the Empire State Building.

The girl seems to be sweetly
collapsed among the dark plates of
the car, the glasses smashed, the lacquered steel
bent on itself because of the violence
of the impact and the girl there, supine as
a sleeping beauty in a breathless
sleep.

From the ice-cold metal of the
car there comes, violently, the red colour
of the sophisticated suit. White is the

blouse and white are the long gloves
that still adorn her hands. Her blonde
hair frame a beautiful face
with a perfect makeup. The tights are
taken down. abbassate. Her arms are bent and
the left hand seems to be gentle near
the face, half-closed in a gesture that
seems to be sophisticated and charming.

The suicide,
in this case, loses the atrociousness of
its meaning thanks to the beauty of
an image that seems to come from a fashion magazine.

The paradoxical
absence of blood and disfigurement,combined with the composure of the subject,gave birth to the title with
which the picture was called:“The Most Beautiful Suicide”.

The image gives
origin to a strong contradiction
in the observer’s mind, seduced
by the aesthetic of death that seems to be
cruelly sweet.

We would like to ask
Evelyn the reason of that gesture,the frustration for the incomprehensibility
of her choice generates a morbid
attention to the details that
tell her life: the white scarf that
vertically fell from the window
reaching the body, the beauty case left apart together with the folded coat, her suicide note.

A violent death for a
picture having an immortal beauty.

This charming and simultaneously
aberrant image was published
in the magazine “Life” with the
title The Most Beautiful Suicide.

The caption told:

«At the bottom ofthe Empire State Building the bodyof Evelyn McHale reposes calmly ingrotesque bier, her falling body punchedinto the top of a car».

The shot
has been then redesigned by Andy Warholin 1962 with the name: Suicide (FallenBody), in a study about the relationship between beauty, death and Pop Art.”

The reflection on beauty leads to travel through impervious roads, in which it is easy to lose oneself in the search for perfection that allows us to recognize beauty in a universal and objective sense. From here starts the thrill that crossed me when I saw the drawings of Andrew Loomis: in some of his artworks from 40s it seems the artist has portrayed some supermodels of the 90s anticipating the image of that kind of beauty about 50 years. We see five of these comparisons of mine.

A lurex dress, a wierd coloured hairstyle, an exasperated make-up often become fashionable due to having seen them show off by a successful singer. Rock and pop icons, even from the world of opera, have been launching for decades styles and trends adopted by the public and sometimes reworked, even after many years, by big names in fashion. Below I have analyzed for you 10 looks that – in chronological order – talks about this extraordinary passage from one dimension to another.

The French singer Francoise Hardy in the ’60s wore a dress in metal dowels signed Paco Rabanne. The same concept has been repeated by stylists, first of all by Rabanne who has made a distinctive trait. In the picture an image from his fashion show – SS 1997.

70s disco music is inextricably linked to fashion. From Glam to the Punk till the Disco each subculture generated fashions that always comes back in fashion trend. In the famous Studio 54 disco it was trendy to wear Halston designer clothes. This brand has made these designs its own brand of recognition, confirming itself as a classic in the history of fashion.

Madonna has always launched styles and trends more than anyone else. Jean Paul Gaultier celebrated her style in 2013 too when he presented the reworking of the look proposed by the singer during the movie “Desperately Seeking Susan”, 1985.

Between 1991 and 1993, Axl Rose, “Guns N ‘Roses” leader, wore tight Lycra shorts with bandana over his long blonde hair, military boots and tartan shirt. This sexy image immediately became a starting point for a new fashion, also recently taken from Number Nine Collection (2008).

And how not to mention Nirvana and Grunge, the group and fashion symbol of the last decade of the century. The look proposed by the band, led by Kurt Cobain, beautiful and charismatic perfomer, immediately became a fashion and costume trend. On a number of American Vogue 1992 two supermodels where photographed by Steven Meisel wearing clothes in line with that trend that spread from Seattle almost all over the world.

The wedding dress is a magical garment for many women. It is imagined, drawn, described since childhood, and with the passage of time the desire to wear it does not fade but increases. For one day only allows the wearer to turn into the romantic princess of a fairy tale, or a seductive primadonna. I chose for you ten icons that have marked the history of costume in the last century thanks to their wedding dress, inspiring great stylists or dressmakers who have revisited their models. English translation under each photo. Hope you will like.

In 2011 Kate Middleton worn her bridal dress inspired by the ones of Grace Kelly

Prince William and Countess Catherine of Cambridge leaving the Royal Wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton held at Westminster Abbey in London United Kingdom 29th April 2011 Photo Cisotti-Diddia/XclusivePix.com

Kate Middleton smiles as she arrives at the West Door of Westminster Abbey in London for her wedding to Britain’s Prince William, on April 29, 2011. AFP PHOTO / BEN STANSALL (Photo credit should read BEN STANSALL/AFP/Getty Images)

Madonna has always drawn with skill and intelligence, to the look of the great divas of the past to build its image. They compare only one of many aesthetic reproduced; inspired by the singer actress, chameleon and unconventional, Marlene Dietrich.

The actress is portrayed in a series of shots in 1933, the singer revisited the same look when, in 1993, was the guest of Pippo Baudo in the program Double Match, through which sponsored her film Body of Evidence.

Le immagini:

Actress Marlene Dietrich in white suit aboard the SS EUROPA, in May 1933

Actress Marlene Dietrich in white suit aboard the SS EUROPA, in May 1933

Marlene Dietrich with her husband, Rudolf Sieber, at a train station in Paris. Amazing suit, coat, sunglasses. Suit by Chanel.